The government on Friday said 386 'phishing' incidents were reported to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) between January and October this year.

 

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Sachin Pilot, minister of state for communications and IT said: "There have been incidents reported to CERT-In by law enforcement agencies on the hacking of email accounts and posting of objectionable content, including videos, on the internet, especially on social networking websites, damaging the reputation of individuals." 

 

The term, 'phishing', is used to describe attempts to acquire information like user names, passwords and credit card details by posing as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public.

 

Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail spoofing or instant messaging and it often directs users to enter details on a fake website that looks almost identical to the legitimate one. A large number of phishing incidents leading to hacking of bank accounts have also been reported to CERT-In by banks and financial institutions, Pilot said.

 

"A total of 508 and 386 phishing incidents have been reported to CERT-In in the year 2010 and during January-October, 2011, respectively," Pilot said. He said the IT Act, 2000, has already been amended by the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008, to provide a legal framework to address prevalent cyber crimes.

 

"Sections 66, 66A, 66B, 66C, 66E, 66F, 67, 67A and 67B provide stringent punishment ranging from imprisonment of three years to life imprisonment and fine for various acts of cyber crime, including tampering with computer source documents, hacking of computers and publishing of obscene information," he said.

 

Pilot added that the IT Act, 2000, is a comprehensive Act to provide a legal framework for electronic commerce and to enable e-governance.